Meeting notes of Sept 30 2010

Reflections on stakeholder feedback

Planning processes and targeting of interventions. We need to know how this is currently done. Alemayehu had insights into how this was done in Fogera. Alemayehu to capture this in a few pages and circulate.

Site selection. Some issues about whether we should rethink sites to make sure there is a possibility for leveraging investment in RMS. For example, we would be more likely to see interventions if we choose SLM sites where there is a major investment plan. Bharat already spoke to Ato Daniel Danano but could follow up with a further meeting. Planned for tomorrow! After the meeting will revisit site selection if this is felt to be necessary. Maybe it will be possible to persuade certain donors to invest in interventions in the catchments we have selected.

Innovation plans. Received good feedback from stakeholders. Plans for LPA's at sites are not controversial but we need to think about how lessons from local sites are used to influence higher level decision makers. Need to work closely with N5 on this.

Social science capacity. Alemayehu and Kebebe will assess capacity of potential research partners. One could be OSSOREA. Another is Forum Social Studies. Also Ethiopian Economics Association.

Implementation: will we actually get involved in implementation or do we facilitate members of the LPA's to implement? Probably we will focus on "soft interventions" e.g. facilitating LPA's rather than hard interventions e.g. constructing ponds.

Livelihoods: data on impact of RMS on livelihoods is sketchy.